The promotion of generals who are being treated as suspects in ongoing cases was not permitted. This has opened a new chapter for democratization, civilian-military relations and normalization in Turkey.
By challenging YAŞ’s decisions, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government took a firm stand like the stance it adopted against the April 27, 2007 “e-memorandum.” With this stance the government has declared again that it is capable of both assuming and wielding power. If the government had approved the list prepared by the generals and given the impression that it had succumbed to the military’s pressure, the AK Party would have hurt itself. That kind of attitude would have strengthened the hand of the front that wants the result of Turkey’s upcoming referendum to be a ‘no.’ Now the biggest obstacle to a ‘yes’ on the referendum has been overcome.
We should not overlook the role President Abdullah Gül played in this process. We now understand the importance of having a president that is in favor of democratization rather than tutelage.
Why did the General Staff seek a confrontation with the government? Because we have a General Staff headquarters that has been managing the process that started with the Ergenekon case very poorly. Even though the times have changed and Turkey has changed, too, the military has not been able to change its mentality. The military still fails to understand that certain media organizations, which were profuse during the process leading up to the 1997 “postmodern coup,” have weakened. They can’t see, or can’t accept, that the previously controlled media no longer has the power to influence the public. They dislike the media that the public trusts and values more and illegally refuses to give them accreditation. But now there is an alternative media and a newspaper called Taraf, which they struggle with every day but can’t beat. Information and documents, from images from drones to copies of important correspondence, are sent to Taraf on an almost weekly basis from sources within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).
No one who supports tutelage can manage this process by resisting the truth, staying passive, making unnecessary moves and making threats. Take for example the drone images of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) carrying out an attack.
Regime-backed television channels haven’t been showing the images, but alternative channels have been broadcasting them for days. These are heart-wrenching images. The children of this nation were heinously murdered, as 30 units stood by watching for several minutes. Why did it take an hour for help to arrive when helicopters were only 10 minutes away? How were they able to tolerate that? As a nation, we are going to lose our minds with these questions. But the General Staff has been quiet for the past six days. The longer it stays quiet, the worse the situation is becoming.
The issue isn’t about who is going to become a commander or who is going to be promoted. The issue is about stopping the armed forces from acting anyway it wants to and pulling it into the limits of democracy. According to the Constitution, the TSK is accountable to the prime minister. To what extent, in which ways and what the consequences are if it does not fulfill its responsibilities are questions that have not been answered. The State Audit Institution (DDK) and the Turkish Court of Account can’t even audit the TSK. An institution that determines who will be promoted and who will become a general several years in advance is not democratic. There is a lack of coordination between the government and the military. How long can it go on this way?
What we have is not a government-military showdown. What we have is the firm stance of a civilian will that wants the General Staff, which is misled by the opinions of a couple pro-tutelage criminal law professors, to comply with the judiciary’s decisions. Generals for whom the judiciary has issued an arrest warrant are not turning themselves in. If the claims that they are being protected in military facilities are true, then I don’t know what else to say.
By taking a stance in favor of the judiciary, the government has sent a message to those who protect the junta within the army. It has sent a reminder that everyone needs to obey the rule of law, especially with respect to cases that are still in progress. Of course, everyone deserves a fair trial, but protecting those who are being treated as suspects, saying, “We know them, they are innocent,” cannot be accepted. Now it is time for those being sought to surrender.
